Sebastián Porto lying in wait for a new pole in Germany.
The Argentinean, fastest in the 250 with Fonsi Nieto eighth; Nicky Hayden second fastest in MotoGP with Barros fourth and Pablo Nieto third in the 125.
Rain, clear spots, clouds… The weather uncertainty lies over the German Sachsenring circuit and the riders fear about what they might find tomorrow took them to look for fast times today, just in case the rain shows up on Saturday. And its been a very positive day for the Repsol riders in the three classes. In MotoGP, Nicky Hayden arrives at the Sachsenring in high spirits after the third place achieved in Brazil. Third in the mornings free practice, the Repsol Honda Team rider set the second fastest time this afternoon only two tenths behind Gibernau.
The timed session had no clear dominator. During the last minutes, when all of the riders decided to use qualifying tyres to clinch a good place on the grid, Gibernau, Hayden, his teammate Barros, Rossi, Roberts, Melandri and Checa were very close to setting the pole. The second rider of the Repsol Honda Team, Brazilian Alex Barros, had also a positive first day. He set the tenth fastest time in the morning while fine-tuning his Honda. In the afternoon, Barros climbed up positions until the fourth spot, thus taking a place on the provisional second row of the starting grid. Rubén Xaus, on a completely unknown track for him until this very morning, showed the expected evolution within the contended premier class. Eighteenth in the morning, Rubén managed to improve his times by a bit over a second in the afternoon, although not being able to finish better than seventeenth on the provisional grid. Tomorrow, after all he has learned today, Rubén will do his best to improve his grid position.
In the 250, the riders of the Team Repsol Aspar played the leading role during the whole day at the German Grand Prix. In the morning, Fonsi Nieto, who finished second last year, only a few tenths behind the winner, Rolfo, showed himself very fast on the German track. The Repsol rider set the fastest time ahead of his teammate Sebastián Porto, second, setting a time four tenths of a second faster that the circuit record, set by Fonsi himself in 2003. Things changed in the afternoon: Sebastián Porto was fastest with a time almost one and a half second faster than the circuit record. Second fastest, Italian rider Rolfo, was three tenths behind the Repsol rider. Fonsi Nieto, with a good racing rhythm set the eighth fastest time showing himself confident and optimistic. Pablo Nieto finished in a back thirteenth position in the morning session of the minor class, focussing on the settings of his Aprilia.
In the afternoon, during the qualifying practice, the Repsol rider finally fine-tuned the suspensions and engine of his machine together with his team and managed to move up to the third place of the provisional standings, three tenths behind the fastest time set by Barberá. Sergio Gadea, on a track he hadnt been before, set the twenty-seventh fastest time both in the mornings free practice and in the afternoons timed session.
